Abstract
Biological membranes are lipid bilayers in which lipid flows can be induced. These systems effectively behave as two-dimensional fluids at submicrometer scales. Usually, biomembranes contain a large number of protein inclusions. When such inclusions are active, they operate as nano-machines and cyclically change their conformations. Thus hydrodynamic flows in the surrounding lipid bilayer become generated. Under the condition of nonreciprocal conformational motions, this can lead to propulsion phenomena with active proteins behaving as nano-swimmers. To demonstrate this, mesoscopic dynamical simulations, combining molecular dynamics for a lipid bilayer and multiparticle collision dynamics for bulk solvent, have been performed. A model transmembrane protein consisting of three domains connected by variable elastic links has been employed in our study.
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